Customer Reviews

Aria

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Iranian-born Jasmine Talahi has made a good life for herself and her daughter, Aria, in Seattle, Clinical Associate Professor of Oncology at the University of Washington, the single mother finally coming to terms with the death of her lover before their marriage and Aria's birth; but when Aria is killed in a senseless accident, Jasmine is unable to sustain this last, terrible blow, leaving Seattle in search of peace, or at least acceptance. First to the Sonora desert, Jasmine begins a series of letters, somewhat comforted by the vast quietude that surrounds her, a landscape that looks as barren as her empty heart.

The letters are compulsive, an unburdening of an impossibly burdened soul: to her Iranian parents, whom she has not seen or spoken with since she shamed the family by choosing a non-Iranian partner and living with him outside wedlock; to her deceased grandmother and confidant, Mamani Joonan; to Justin, her soul mate and Aria's father; to Dot, Jasmine's best friend in Seattle, a "little person" and an Egyptologist; to Alexander, the man who was helping rebuild her life after Justin; and, most poignantly, Aria, only five-years-old when taken from her mother.

Once the journey has begun, Jasmine follows where her heart beckons. After the desert, she travels to Guatemala, where Justin served in the Peace Corps; next is Tibet, China and the tiny meditative nuns, where she witnesses a sky burial. But all along Jasmine is being called by the land of her birth, where identity began, where she might embrace "an ignored heritage". Ultimately, desperate without Aria, Jasmine will unite past with present, her new life with her beginning: "A fierce wind sends my message of remorse across the Himalayas to the foothills of the Elburz Mountains. I follow." There, at last, Jasmine's transformational journey comes full circle as the grieving woman makes peace with the parents who never met their grandchild. Slowly, the healing begins.

Bearing such enormous loss, Jasmine undertakes a reevaluation of her life through the months of her travels, examining the most precious relationship she has known, those she has lost to death or neglect and those still treasured for their patience and unconditional love. Over the miles Jasmine explores the countries that so affect a change in her broken spirit, the generous people, traditions, celebrations and joy of the communities that welcome this woman, each place healing and sustaining, each the venue of introspection and forgiveness. Remarkable and hopeful, Aria is rich with the emotional depths of loss and the regeneration of kindness, the small comforts that make the future viable once more, peace a reality. Luan Gaines /2007.

Nassim Assefi's novel is compelling, haunting and infinitely believable as she deftly weaves an intricate story through letters from various narrators. Throughout this first novel,the reader is able to witness Jasmine's personal anguish and ultimate transformation as she attemps to come to terms with the untimely death of her partner; her 5-year old daughter Aria's accidental and tragic death; the evolution of a deeper friendship with her loyal best friend, Dottie; the steady, slightly puzzled, devastated devotion of her abandoned lover, Alexander, and Jasmine's parents rejection of all that she has created and all that she has loved. Ms. Assefi takes the reader on an armchair voyage of Jasmine's self-discovery around the world, from maize fields in Guatemala to a silent cave in Nepal and ultimately to Iran, where Jasmine is able to face the transformation of grief through the sprit selves of her daughter and her beloved grandmother, and find an uneasy but necessary reconciliation with her mother and father. A reminder to hold those we love close and cherish our memories.

Aria is a straightforward meditation. The novel examines grief by the meandering path of sorrow, joy, hopelessness and wondering.

Following the death of her five-year-old daughter, Aria, a profound loss that nearly six years later follows the death of her lover and the father of the child, Justin, Jasmine can simply no longer face the dailyness of being in the town where her only self, Aria, died. An oncologist, who has faced death with her patients, Jasmine thought she would understand better. But when the monstrous tragedy strikes, when all that is left of family on American soil is taken from her, she flees.

In a series of letters to the important people left to her, living and dead, intimate and removed, the heart of Jasmine pours forth with dignity and grace.

This is a story of looking for meaning, of looking for salvation and faith, of looking for a reason to live. From Guatemala to Lhasa, she is comforted, as in a travelogue--briefly removed from her sorrow as she ponders the newness before her. But as many have found, a geographic gallop does little to assuage the ultimate depths.

It is not until she reaches her parents' native Iran and reunites with them that her personal and cultural history begins to triumph over the deeply personal aloneness.

Aria is, in the long run, a celebration of living. From maize fields to the desert, something is always alive, is always struggling, is always annihilated, is always triumphant. It is this that the reader learns with her. It is this that Assefi brings as a gift to the reader--an open pomegranate, bleeding "the depths of sweetness" after we have "swallowed the sour."

Aria, written in the form of letters which tell the story, is gripping and powerful, aptly articulating a parent's deepest grief in losing a child. The path to healing leads through many cultures and geographic locations--described in such clear detail that one can experience all the senses stimulated in day to day existence. Relationships also travel on a journey toward healing, allowing for closure as the novel progresses. Excellent first novel. Any parent, or any who have travelled to Central America or Asia will be cast within the spell of these stories, making the book difficult to set down.

Whether you are a parent, a traveler, a child, a partner or from a family that comes from elsewhere you will appreciate this book. It's sensual, moving, insightful and sometimes even humorous. Totally 5 star plus.

From Mountain Mama, Seattle, WA (5 stars, highest rec)

I thought I had grieved as much as possible when my daughter died 6 years ago (for we had known for some years that she had AIDS), however earlier in this year, a friend gave me ARIA. Though it was a book that was difficult to put down, I could only read the first few chapters, because it was too sad for me. When finally I was able to finish it, I found myself at my pc writing a long letter to my daughter, inspired by the main character's correspondence with her dead daughter. Many of my thoughts and feelings of the past 6 years, as well as from my daughter's childhood, came flooding out on those pages. When I finished writing, I realized I had said some of the things to her that I had not told her before. I felt as if a silent burden had been lifted from my shoulders. I now feel that I have connected with her in a deeper way than I had all these years.

I recommend ARIA to any person experiencing major grief, especially bereaved parents. The story is beautiful, the loss is universal, and the impact (at least for me) is potent and therapeutic. Of note, the author, Nassim Assefi, is donating a portion of her royalties to the Compassionate Friends Organization, a nationwide parental bereavement charity.

In Nassim Assefi's debut novel, Aria, Iranian-American oncologist Jasmine Talahi sets out on an emotional journey around the world to seek solace after her 5-year-old daughter's sudden death. While pregnant with her daughter, Aria, Jasmine's boyfriend Justin passes away suddenly. Estranged from her disapproving Iranian parents, Jasmine finds herself alone until best friend and "little person" Dottie takes her in. Together, these fiercely independent women rear Aria. But when a teenager in a car cuts the little girl's life short, Jasmine is faced with the stark reality that she has been orphaned from her family.

Still reeling from the shock, Jasmine treks across the world--working in Guatemala and meditating in Tibet. Eventually, she finds herself in Iran visiting the parents who turned their backs to her a number of years ago. There, she discovers her family history and finds true inner strength.

Aria is written as a series of letters to Dottie, Aria, Justin and Jasmine's deceased grandmother. Several letters and essays from Dottie and the teen driver who took Aria's life are included in the novel to fill in background information. Though these expository pieces are essential to the novel's plot, the letters at times sound forced and the flow of the letters make the novel choppy. Despite this, though, Jasmine's outpouring of grief shines through as only a mother's loss can.

Like an operatic aria, Assefi's expose' of Jasmine's relationships are lyrical and passionate. But also like an aria--an elaborate melody sung solo with accompaniment--Jasmine realizes she has a strong backbone of friends and family she can turn to.

Armchair Interviews says: This is a promising first novel for Assefi, a health specialist-cum-writer.

A truly engaging story, unsettling despite its lyricism. Before I realized, I was drawn into the life of the main character, her conflicted heart over her lover, and her unabashed devotion to, desolution from, and ultimate reintegration of the memories that arose from her pain in coming to terms with her child's loss. I especially liked the best friend character, a classic foil, with quirky grit and self-effacing humor. A tour de force for a first novel!